NEW ORLEANS — The covid curfew, putting limitations on bars across the New Orleans area. A city known for it’s bustling nightlife, now quite after 11pm.
Jeffrey Carreras, owner of Tracey’s Irish Pub, says the early closing time has hit his business hard.
“It’s a little struggle being at 11 o’clock, because in this industry obviously, you know when people get off of work at different restaurants, they like to have cocktails afterwards and they spend money and they tip well,” said Carreras.
Carreras says business in the last year has plummeted.
“A very rough struggle. down 87.2% from 2019 to 2020,”
Tracey’s is just one of dozens of bars struggling to keep their doors open.
Friday, the hashtag “end closing time” started circulating on Instagram, after local bars started sharing a post that reads in part.
“Governor Edwards, please end the alcohol closing time so we may put Louisiana back to work and return to fully serving our communities.”
Carreras, who also shared the Instagram post, said extending the closing time would help his business tremendously.
“It would be great, that would just give us a couple more hours to you know, couple three hours more of generating revenue. I mean, that’s usually our busiest time of the night, is after hours,”
Until the covid curfew restrictions are relaxed, bar owners like Carreras will depend on their current hours to keep the doors to their businesses open.
So far, there’s been no official response from Governor Edwards office about extending bar hours. Right now, Louisiana is in phase three, and all alcohol sales must end at 11 o’clock. The current covid guidelines expire Wednesday, March 31 and Governor Edwards will have to decide the next move for Louisiana.